The most popular stories of 2011 on Ars Technica

Take a pinch of Lion, a dash of Anonymous, a bit of Xoom, and a lot of …

As 2011 winds to a close, let's look back at the stories that were the most popular with Ars Technica's readers. These are ranked one through ten in order of the number of pageviews; no other criteria were used to compile this list, which contains a bit of Apple, a bit of Anonymous, and a bit of Duke Nukem. Without further ado...

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is no shrinking violet. Unlike its predecessor, Snow Leopard, which concentrated on internal changes, Lion aims to remake the Mac desktop experience in the image of its mobile sibling, iOS. But is this a good thing? John Siracusa gives Apple's new OS his usual thorough consideration.

Aaron Barr, CEO of security firm HBGary Federal, spent a month tracking down the real identities of the hacker collective Anonymous. But when he prepared to go to the FBI, Barr and his company were viciously attacked—in part by a 16-year old girl. Leaked e-mails reveal exactly how it happened.

Duke Nukem Forever finally arrived—and we found it to be one of the worst games from a major studio in quite some time. The jokes border on hateful. The graphics are a blurry mess. The shooting is unsatisfying. The good news? It's short.

The long-awaited public release of iOS 5 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch hit the streets in 2011. Thanks to better notifications, a new way to avoid texting, and a new focus on cloud sync, it's one of the best iOS updates yet.

The attacks by Anonymous on security firm HBGary have yanked back the curtain on the dark world of government-sponsored malware. Where does the US military get its custom rootkits? It buys them—and the zero-day exploits that deliver them—from private security firms.

In an effort to blunt the (ARM-based) tablet threat, Intel wants PC makers to crank out thin and light "Ultrabook" laptops with its chips inside—and it has a $300 million warchest set aside to make it happen. But this is going to be harder than it sounds.

Thanks not only for reading the above and the rest of our content, but also for the intelligent comments you leave in the discussion, and the feedback you give us. Having a critical, well-informed readership goes a long way towards making Ars the site that it is. We're grateful for all you gave us in 2011 and wish you all the best in 2012.

So basically: Apple, technology policy/law/sociology, gadget reviews, and a nod to gaming. The only truly "geeky" item comes in at #9 (although, to be fair, Siracusa's OS X reviews are not for the faint of heart). Not sure how to categorize #10... technology business? I'm actually surprised how well the policy/law articles did. Really interesting.

Audiences, and their interests, evolve. I suspect 2012's list will feature a further evolution of the content mix compared to the mythical "Ye Olde Ars" that is referenced with much hand wringing from time to time. I'm glad Ars hasn't stood still all these years.

I'm not saying we write just to chase page views, because we don't. But I do think the point about evolving and Ye Olde Ars is a good one. Keep it in mind when you read comments, what people say in response to stories doesn't represent the actual bulk of the readership.

"Geeky" is whatever you want it to be. Ars OS X reviews are not for the faint of heart and the HBGary saga was a wonderful in-depth analysis into the attack and its aftermath.

We actually are in agreement; my comment (perhaps too obliquely) was in reference to the criticism leveled at Ars that they've somehow cast off their "geek" roots by not doing motherboard reviews, or whatever. The nature of what technology reporting is, and how its audience has grown up and evolved, is something I think Ars has done a uniquely good job of tracking -- not following, but reacting to the realities that "technology" is becoming less and less about just the practical, electronic building blocks.

I am seeing Ars Technica referenced in my iGoogle feed more and more frequently. I regularly click on an interesting headline in the Tech section of my page and end up at Ars.

The consumerization of tech and gadgetry really makes Ye Old Ars comments lost some relevancy. If you want motherboard reviews, there are lots of dedicated hardware tech sites around who focus on that sort of thing.

I have a question though.. are the pageview rankings in any way associated with the cross posting agreement that Ars has with Wired? IE: If Wired crossposts the article, are the two pages' respective hits combined, or is Wired 100% left out of this?

Ars Technica is quite unique in that perspective. AT always has a lot of background info with news items, who cares it's not the quickest? These articles last long enough to be reread almost a year later.

Quote:

Keep it in mind when you read comments, what people say in response to stories doesn't represent the actual bulk of the readership.

Are the pageview rankings in any way associated with the cross posting agreement that Ars has with Wired? IE: If Wired crossposts the article, are the two pages' respective hits combined, or is Wired 100% left out of this?

I didn't put this list together, but I am 99.999% certain any Wired page views are left out.

Is it odd the #1 story this year doesn't come from a regular contributor? Anyways, congratulations (and Happy Birthday!) to John Siracusa for having the #1 story this year.

Any year there's an OS X review from Siracusa it's automatically the #1 story, and by a large margin. His reviews are immensely popular.

Despite Apple's popularity, I'm a bit surprised as the OS X reviews are epic (although never long enough for me!) ... but shouldn't underestimate Ars readers, obviously. JS is a Living National Treasure.

I'm not saying we write just to chase page views, because we don't. But I do think the point about evolving and Ye Olde Ars is a good one. Keep it in mind when you read comments, what people say in response to stories doesn't represent the actual bulk of the readership.

As I've had the good fortune of encountering Ars within only the last 7 - 9 months, I don't have enough history with AT to truly appreciate references to "Ye Olde Ars". What I AM able to appreciate, however, are a number of the diverse elements that combine in what is perhaps my favorite way-station on "Ye Olde Information Superhighway" (I do have Some history).

I'm very capable of droning on ad nauseum, but I'll spare you a paean perhaps as painful as an 8 carousel slide show of my ex-mother-in-law's summer vacation escapades in Hoboken. I'll simply say "Thanks!" to all of the Ars production group, for your conscientious display of Journalistic Craft. And this does include Ars' application of both "proof-reading" and spell-check.

Intriguing that the only Android / Google related article in the top 10 is really a review of someone else's product. I'm not suggesting this has any deep meaning, just interesting from a marketing viewpoint...

Ars readers may want to be aware that the forces of good won a partial victory in Canada against the dark Bell Canada Usage Based Billing plot. An anti-UBB protest supported online by almost a half-million Canadians (about one in 70) caused the country's minority government (made sensitive by a looming election) to order the governing Internet body (archaic ally named the Canadian Radio Television Commission) to reconsider its rubber-stamp approval of the Bell UBB proposal, and hold genuinely public hearings on the issue.

The hearings caused the CRTC to abandon its support of UBB. The proof of the extent of the win will come early this year when ISPs publish new rate proposals.

Everyone likes to be told how awesome they are from time to time and you guys and girls are awesome. This site is (in my opinion) one of the best around. Keep up the good work and have a happy new year.

Everyone likes to be told how awesome they are from time to time and you guys and girls are awesome. This site is (in my opinion) one of the best around. Keep up the good work and have a happy new year.

Why? What I mean is - what does the first story being about OSX tell you about the future of Ars that you lilke so much ? Because it was OSX instead of iOS or because it was OSX instead of Windows, or something else?

what does the first story being about OSX tell you about the future of Ars that you lilke so much ?

Nothing I would venture, since any year there's been an OS X review going back through the history of Ars it's pretty much always the #1 story. We're talking a decade of reviews here. So it's not like this is some new phenomenon revealing anything about the future of Ars, they're always huge. Not to take anything away from the OS X review, in any way, but the #2 story is probably much more interesting from a "tea leaves" perspective IMHO. That was Nate and Peter (with Jacqui starting things off) doing some serious, in-depth, investigative reporting. Something I'm hoping we do a lot more of in the years to come.

You have to understand, John's reviews are a genuine internet phenomenon. No one else writes anything like them. They're linked all over the web when they come out. I would not be shocked if a healthy % of the views on that story were from first time/only time readers, as opposed to regulars. Just a guess, not quoting any official stats or anything.

John's reviews are a genuine internet phenomenon. No one else writes anything like them. They're linked all over the web when they come out.

Let me be the first to predict a Dave Chappelle-style meltdown for John Siracusa: The pressure to produce epic, internet-arresting OS X reviews will only climb; Ars will throw more and more money at him to fuel increasingly irrational demands for test hardware; rumors of John spending all his time playing with the Windows 8 Preview abound; The strain of people constantly reloading the main page waiting for the review to go live will cause the load balancer to emit smoke and moonsharks will become moonwhales; days then weeks then months will pass with no review -- calls to John's cell phone go unanswered; Caesar will post an opaque and scattershot note on the front page indicating all is well, the review is coming -- meanwhile, John will be spotted in a bar in Budapest, unkempt and mumbling something about "spatial finder! SPATIAL FINDER!," huddled in a corner clutching a beer bottle to his chest.

Any year there's an OS X review from Siracusa it's automatically the #1 story, and by a large margin. His reviews are immensely popular.

I want stats on how many people clicked through all the pages.

Anyhow, I really like this list. Decent amount of original material that required some research and old-timey journalism skills, I hope the editorial staff notes that. I'm a little sad there's not any Nobel Intent stories though. Maybe in the top 20?

My favourite has to be the HBGary coverage from last year, I don't know any other major news outlet that covered this in such detail, and it turned out to be such a delicious saga by the time all the dust settled. Keep up the good work!

Let me be the first to predict a Dave Chappelle-style meltdown for John Siracusa: The pressure to produce epic, internet-arresting OS X reviews will only climb; Ars will throw more and more money at him to fuel increasingly irrational demands for test hardware; rumors of John spending all his time playing with the Windows 8 Preview abound; The strain of people constantly reloading the main page waiting for the review to go live will cause the load balancer to emit smoke and moonsharks will become moonwhales; days then weeks then months will pass with no review -- calls to John's cell phone go unanswered; Caesar will post an opaque and scattershot note on the front page indicating all is well, the review is coming -- meanwhile, John will be spotted in a bar in Budapest, unkempt and mumbling something about "spatial finder! SPATIAL FINDER!," huddled in a corner clutching a beer bottle to his

The HBGary vs Anonymous type of articles are why I come to Ars. Here's to an interesting 2012!

Agreed. I love Ars, and it's been my homepage for a couple of years, but Nate's articles are the reason I still regularly visit. Most all the content here (with a good nod to Kuchera) are great, but Nate's tech policy ones are usually very in-depth and easy to read, and they usually inspire a great deal of furore in the comments.